As a marvel of engineering, the Hoover Dam would
inevitably be associated with the modern. No dam of this scale had been attempted
before; that fact that technological innovations were required to build it was
understood implicitly. In this context, though, the word modern simply implies
advancement, an adherence to the forward-looking quality of design as new materials
and new techniques became available through the first half of the twentieth
century.

The Hoover Dam also became an icon of modernism,
that certain mode of design which emerged from Europe in as disparate forms
as Gropius's Bauhaus or the 1925 Paris Arts Decoratif et Industrials Modernes
show; out of these came the International Style and Art Deco. Although the Hoover
Dam's design was not specifically allied with a sub-movement of modernism, the
attempt was made to create an aesthetically pleasing--and Modern--facade.

The original design for the dam's facade by Bureau
of Reclamation engineers made it clear that an architect needed to be brought
in. Although the engineers' design was highly functional, the unbalanced outlet
houses, government-office powerhouse, and massive eagles set on the roadway
towers clashed violently with the image projected of Hoover Dam as a modern
structure.

Bureau of Reclamation design for dam facade

Architect Gordon B. Kaufmann from Los Angeles
was given the design to rework the dam; by January of 1933, Kaufmann presented
the Bureau with suggestions that were, for the most part, implemented:

"He simplified and modernized the various
parts of the dam. On the crest, the overhanging balcony and four unequal towers
gave way to a series of observation niches and towers that rise from the wall
and continue upward unimpeded. The emphasis, according to Kaufmann, was on 'an
orderly series of small vertical shadows punctuated by the larger shadows of
the elevator and utility towers.' He treated these extrusions as continuations
of the dam face, not as separate moldings. The four large towers have cutback
corners and tops reminiscent of the set-back Los Angeles Times Building, but
were treated much more simply. The two outer towers were for utilities and public
restroms, while the two inner towers acted as public entrances to the dam; from
them, elevators descended inside the concrete to the internal galleries and
powerhouse. Appropriately, these inner entrance towers contained the only ornament
on the dam--two large cast-concrete panels by sculptor Oskar J.W. Hansen. These
panels depicted such subjects as flood control, irrigation, power, and the history
of the area. Their low-relief, semiclassical, cubist style typified Art Deco
sculpture." (Wilson, 302-303)

Kaufmann's design for dam facade

Kaufmann also redesigned the spillways to be
more streamlined, added lights to the top of the intake towers for nighttime
effect, and reworked the powerhouse in a modernist, stripped-classicism style
(Wilson, 304-305). Further, a competition to find a monument for the dam was
arranged; the winner was Oskar Hansen, whose strange winged figures, seated
but still thirty feet tall, now adorn the site.

Oskar Hansen's winning sculptures

Wilson notes that "these surrealistic apparitions
underscored the unreality of a dam and lake in the middle of a hostile desert"
(309). Hansen also was responsible for a star map set in the floor of the monument;
this map, indicating dates of historical importance, linked the moment the Hoover
Dam was dedicated with such events as the building of the pyramids and the birth
of Christ. Hansen believed that "in remote ages to come, intelligent people"
would be able to discern "the astronomical time of the dam's dedication"
(Wilson, 310).

The alliance between the modernism of the engineering
and architecture of the Hoover Dam renders it a coherent and cohesive structure.
Because of Kaufmann's design, the engineering feat is appropriately reflected
in the magnificence of the facade. Indeed, as an icon of modernism, the Hoover
Dam helped to usher in a new era.